Earlier, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged President Zelensky to secure Ukraine’s future by signing a minerals deal with the US.

Johnson said he believed Ukraine would sign a “promising” agreement to give the US access to valuable minerals, in return for security guarantees.

Zelensky had rejected a £400bn ($500bn) demand for mineral wealth, but over the weekend, US officials said they expected to sign a deal this week.

On Sunday, President Zelensky suggested talks had progressed, but rejected any agreement that would have to be “repaid by generations and generations of Ukrainians”.

In a post on X, external on Monday, Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, said the Ukrainian and US teams were “in the final stages of negotiations regarding the minerals agreement”.

Ukraine holds huge deposits of critical elements and minerals thought to be worth billions of dollars, including lithium and titanium, as well as sizeable quantities of coal, gas, oil and uranium.

Speaking to the BBC, Johnson – a Zelensky ally who was prime minister when the invasion started – said claims by some Americans that Ukraine had provoked the war were “a complete inversion of the truth”.

He described Trump’s comments as “Orwellian”, and said he might as well have blamed the US for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War Two.

But Johnson said it was important to focus on a minerals deal, which he called “the great prize”.

He rejected suggestions the deal was a “rip-off” and said “what the Ukrainians get from this is a United States commitment under Donald Trump to a free, sovereign and secure Ukraine”.

“I hope and believe that today, this week, that agreement is going to be signed,” Johnson said.

Additional reporting by Joe Pike, political correspondent